Module 6: Donald Woods --> The Haven

Yesterday (Thursday) morning we loaded up and left the Donald Woods Foundation (DWF). We really enjoyed our time there and met some amazing people. Thankfully, we're just down the road, so our time together isn't over yet. We've moved about 10 kilometers down the road to The Haven Hotel, which is located within the Cwebe/Dwesa Nature Reserve. This place is beautiful! I walked down to the beach yesterday and found a few friends (cows).

Today some of us went into Elliotdale for a high school summit, coordinated by the DWF. The drive from The Haven to Elliotdale took about an hour (maybe longer) and is mostly on gravel roads. It's interesting to be driving down the road and encounter a herd of cows. While the area is rural, there always seem to be people walking along the road, too. Ultimately, the land is fairly populous, but it is incredibly underdeveloped around Hobeni.

Walking into the summit was a bit overwhelming. The high school students were cheering so loud that I thought celebrities must be following us into the schoolyard. Really, the high schoolers were just excited to see us, and were also quite excited to be spending the day with the DWF staff. To welcome us, some songs were sung and speeches were made. The purpose of the summit was to dive into health issues directly affecting this population: teenage pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, TB, and drugs/alcohol. The high schoolers were separated by gender and our students sat in on the conversations. After the students discussed the problems, they were asked to come up with possible solutions, which they later presented to the entire group.

Neil, Danielle, and I sat in on conversations with the students. We heard a bit more about problems facing the school and were asked for help in addressing the issues. There is a misconception that all Americans have the financial means to do things like build hostels for the schools. The teachers said that 80% of the students are traveling long distances to get to the Elliotdale Tech Senior High School, which means that many learners are tired before the school day gets a start. Many of the students also suffer from stomach ulcers, caused by eating just one meal each day. The schools are stretched thin, and it always makes you wonder how you can help make the world better. While we may not have the means to set up a hostel (Oprah, are you reading?!), we can likely help the school in other ways. 

The school day closed with a play that symbolized the problems really happening in Xhosa culture, including early pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and drug/alcohol abuse. While we couldn't understand the (Xhosa) words, we were able to interpret most of the message. The acting was excellent and hopefully meaningful for everyone in the audience. 

While we were at the summit I got a message from one of our students, Callie, who stayed behind today. Callie wanted to let me know that a monkey got into my room (through an open window...rookie mistake on my part) and was snacking on crackers. Housekeeping got the monkey out and there was no other damage/concern. The monkey could have at least used the bag's zipper ;)  

It's really hard to believe that we have less than two weeks left in South Africa. We've made it to our furthest point, The Wild Coast. We'll be here until next Friday (March 25), when we'll start our return trip to Cape Town.